Moon Belly is a safe and nurturing environment to learn belly dance technique. It is unique from other dance schools in that it focuses on the relationships between dancers as a central component to both the culture of the school and to personal health and well being. It is more than a dance school, it is a way ti connect with both self and others.

Why belly dance?

Belly dance is an ancient and beautiful art form that makes women feel sensual, powerful and magical. It also creates happy chemicals in the brain, makes you smarter, is a cathartic release of old baggage, and is actually a fun workout. Check out Kandi's blog post on 10 Reasons to Belly Dance.

Do i need to preregister for classes?

No. New students can start classes at any time. You just simply show up.

do i have to have previous dance experience?

Absolutely not. We pride ourselves on teaching adults who have no previous dance experience. Many women who claim "they cannot dance" or "have no rhythm" are amazed at themselves after committing to 16 weeks of classes at Moon Belly.

do I need to be in shape? or a certain age?

Absolutely not. You will get in shape by coming to belly dance classes. Belly dance is a grounding and safe art form and we encourage women of all shapes, sizes and ages to join us.

do i have to perform if i start taking classes regularly?

Absolutely not. The option to perform is always just that: an option. Some students never decide to perform and maintain belly dance as a personal practice of fitness, beauty and empowerment. ​

What do i wear to class? do i have to show my belly?

Please wear comfortable workout pants and a tighter fitting top. No shoes required. We dance bare foot. You do NOT have to show your belly to do belly dance.

what do i need to bring?

﻿A water bottle, a good attitude and sometimes finger cymbals, if specified. There are many online sites for purchasing finger cymbals that range from very inexpensive to very expensive. Once committed to the art form, they are an absolute necessity and we encourage a quality pair from either the Suhaila Salimpour Belly Dance Store or Turquoise International.

how much does it cost and how do i pay?

All classes at Moon Belly are one-hour in length and cost $10.​Sometimes intermediate/advanced will expand to a 1.5 hour and cost $15. Advance notice is always given when this is the case.We accept cash or check only. We do NOT accept payment via credit or debit cards.

what is the curriculum?

Every class teaches posture, hip movement, an upper body movement, some form of travel and a short combination. You will learn something new every class and you will re-learn something old every class. Hip movements are offered on a 10-week rotation:1 shimmies2 downs3 3/4's4 slides5 figure 8's: vertical6 figure 8's: horizontal7 pelvic contractions8 squares9 circles10 twists

when am i ready to start intermediate?

Typically after a beginning student has taken classes on a weekly basis for approximately 16 weeks, she is ready to move forward. However, this varies student to student. If you think you are ready, simply show up and try it out! If you are unsure, talk to Kandi about it. She can help determine if it is time to move up.

When am I ready to perform? how do i join moon dance company?

Dancers interested in joining MOON dance company should attend weekly classes consistently and take the choreography classes offered in 2016. The option to perform the choreography in the 2016 recital will be given at the end of the session.

MOON rotates every other year with a large staged performance. In 2015, MOON successfully produced "Mother Nature." All large staged productions require auditions at the beginning of the year. The next scheduled audition is in January 2017. In 2016, MOON will be performing a fundraising recital and is open to new dancers.

Why should i take private lessons?

There are many great reasons to take a private lesson. If you are a beginner, this is a great way to introduce yourself to the technique. Many students start with a private lesson before they start the group classes simply to feel more comfortable when they show up. If you are a more advanced dancer, privates are a great way to hone your craft and fine tune movement. Privates are also great for creating and cleaning up choreography. With more than 20 years dance experience, Kandi will be able to tailor each lesson to your specific needs. Lessons are usually available on most Saturday afternoon's between 1-5pm and cost $40/hour.

Fashion

Ashley Harrison, originally a farm girl from Paris MO, got her start as a tot sewing costumes for her barn cats. After perfecting this particular brand of feline torture she went on to earn her degree in fashion and theatrical design from Stephens College. Since then she has been designing for various productions of dance, theatre, and film as well as holding positions in costume shops as a patternmaker, cutter/draper, and shop foreman. In 2008 she helped start the Kansas-City based children's theatre company Bellenwhistle Productions, which went on to create an original production of Alice in Wonderland that preformed at the Off Center Theatre and the Nelson Atkins Museum. Currently, Ashley is on her 5th year as a patternmaker and designer for the talented competition dancers at the Columbia Preforming Arts Center and spends her summers as the costume shop manager and designer at the Okoboji Summer Theatre. She also teaches beginning sewing at Stephens College as an adjunct professor and on Saturday nights you can see her hosting at the lovely and local Sycamore Restaurant. This is Ashley's first venture into the realm of belly dance costumes and she is very excited to be working with such an amazing group of women as the Moon Belly Dancers!

Nicole Hawkins-Beasley is the Resident Costume Designer for TRYPS Institute at Stephens College. She holds a BFA/Technical Theatre-Costume from Missouri Valley College. She has designed for TRYPS, Stephens College Dance and Theatre Department, Battle High School, Columbia College. Nicole has been assistant designer for the Straw Hat Players, Moorhead Minnesota as well as seasonal costume staff at Columbia Performing Arts Center. She has worked as Costume Consultant for MOON Dance Company. She has worked as Wardrobe Mistress for MU Concert Series, Lyceum Theatre, Chautauqua New York and Stages St. Louis. Nicole is also the director of the T.H.R.E.A.D.S. Costume Academy at TRYPS Institute.

Jennifer Luchau is a largely self-taught seamstress who loves to dance. Her first design work was for her middle school production of The Wizard of Oz at the age of 14. Since then, she has done costumes for the stage productions of Tom Sawyer, Sabrina Fair, and The King and I. Jennifer also creates original costumes for Candace Grossman’s solo shows. For this production, Jennifer has created the costumes for the dance pieces entitled Demon and War. Jennifer would like to thank Kandice Grossman and Nicole Beasley for giving her this amazing opportunity, and for their friendship. She would also like to thank Sharon Hanson for her assistance with the manufacturing of the pieces for the Mother Nature performance. Jennifer is a manager at JoAnn Fabrics, and would like to invite you to stop by anytime for assistance with your own costuming needs!

Lisa Carlos’ love of sewing began nearly 40 years ago, with the gift of a new Singer sewing machine (one that she still uses today), and a summer filled with sewing classes. From designing American Girl doll clothes for her granddaughters, to quilt tops, baby bedding to wedding dresses, she loves to create items with character and function; letting the recipients personality and use be her guide. She enjoys exploring color, texture and drape to keep her work fresh and exciting. Born with a love for all things arts and crafts, she also enjoys paper quilling, making jewelry, crochet, and occasionally turning her kitchen into a laboratory for making bath and body products. Lisa also has a passion for belly dance, and draws from her own experiences as a previous Moon Belly Ensemble dancer to create unique costumes that blend expression and function for the performers.

Masks

Jessica Hawk grew up surrounded by the arts, although she has pursued science as a career. She received a degree in Physical Anthropology from UM-Columbia with an emphasis on forensic science. Currently she is employed as assistant lab supervisor for the diagnostic molecular biology lab division of IDEXX Bioresearch. She has been a member of the CoMo Derby dames since 2007 and serves as League President on the Executive Board. She has formal training in oil painting, and has dabbled in 3D paper art since childhood. In her non-derby time she enjoys painting, crafting, drinking wine, pole fitness, and reading with, not to, her cats. She is honored to have been invited to be part of such dynamic woman-centered artistic project.

Make-Up

Ella Folkerts is a 20 year old Columbia native, who has been heavily involved with the theater scene for almost a decade now. She graduated from cosmetology school in April of this year, and is currently working at Red the Salon here in town. She enjoys spending time with her family and her boyfriend, watching Netflix and eating lots of unhealthy snacks.

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Set

WT Bryan grew up on a farm in mid-Missouri and is a lover of mother nature. He has more than 15 years experience in construction and woodworking and is the owner of Against the Grain Woodworking, based in Columbia, MO.

To really get into the mindset and feel of a natural disaster, I write this barefoot. Just as my feet desire to be freed from the confinement of footwear, a hurricane refuses to be confined in any way. Going barefoot feels natural, wild, laidback, and informal. There is nothing formal about a hurricane. It causes destruction if it makes landfall, it affects the weather hundreds of miles away. It makes a big dent in many ways.

There is a calm before the storm, and then small waves begin to mix with high winds. As heat and pressure builds, the storm intensifies – with the eye of the storm as the control center in the middle of chaos. This is what I keep in mind in my role as the Eye of the Storm – an almost calm and calculated expression even as the cyclone continues to spin faster and faster. All control lies in me. I am powerful and strong. I make the decisions. Taking all of this emotion and choreographing a performance piece on a new (to me) apparatus is a fun (and dizzying) challenge.

The scene begins with ocean waves beginning to mix with sudden temperature changes and increasing pressure. The eye of the storm then awakens and begins brewing a briny concoction of the fear, intensity, and destruction. As the finale piece in a show about the state of the world that we live in, we are portraying what is to come next if we don’t begin to make changes in the right direction. This piece speaks not only of environmental degradation, but also of current human rights issues such as immigration from Syria into Western Europe and police brutality against minority groups here in our own country. If we let these kinds of issues build and build, we can only expect a hurricane-like ending.

Delving into this role and what "Warrior" represents to me has been a challenge but I have started to form some questions in my mind: What enemy is she up against? What is this rage burning inside her? Seeing all of the pieces coming together during practices and watching the story of "Mother Nature" unfold, I have started to find some answers of my own translation and found more than one story. "She," this warrior spirit, is waging a war against a society that is killing the planet, and destroying all of her natural resources. All in the name of, what? More, we want more! More things, more property and prestige, more wealth, and more power. This beast of "more" is tearing down forests, killing innocent living creatures, and poisoning her to satisfy its hunger, but the hunger is insatiable. The beast grows and requires more to get its fill and it will never be satisfied. Warrior is raging for Mother Earth- she is her protector and a soldier in the battle against her. Warrior also represents to me someone who is angry with society about the expectations placed on her as a woman. She is expected to be pretty, thin, and sexy. She is hounded relentlessly by media all around her with images of perfectly fit, perfectly manicured, "flawless" women and made to feel less than or unattractive if she does not possess these traits. She is objectified and mistreated by men and is taught by a large percentage of society that this is "ok" and normal. She is filled with rage at this and wants to show other women they are beautiful in all of their shapes and sizes. But also that they are more than just their beauty! We are strong, we are powerful, we are fierce, we fight as one, and we are warrior!

In MOON Dance Company’s upcoming show, Mother Nature, I perform in a piece which focuses on female objectification and its negative consequences on the individual and our society.

Exploring my role led me to think a great deal about female sexuality and how it is perceived in our culture. Certainly there are some women who are strippers or sex workers by choice. They feel empowered by using their sexuality to their advantage, and find it rewarding to provide that form of companionship or entertainment for a living. But they are the minority. For every woman who feels empowered by this chosen profession, how many more are sold into slavery via human trafficking, or coerced into this life out of desperation? I personally believe that sexuality is healthy and beautiful, in the context for which God created it, as an act of love and complete devotion between married adults; the sex industry (and our hyper-sexualized culture, more in that in a minute) distorts sex into a commodity, which cheapens it.

I've also been thinking about female sexuality in a broader context. In our society, it seems that the female body is always on display. Consider the countless overly sexualized models you’ve seen in advertisements, female movie characters without any traits other than their looks, or the commonplace occurrence of women harassed and cat-called on the street. In daily life, female sexuality is a double edged sword; women are criticized for being too sexy and women who have "let themselves go" are ridiculed for not being sexy enough. A women’s body is not simply her own, but is society’s to be consumed and judged. The everyday dangers are that women are seen, at least on a subtle level, as objects, or that none of us can live up to unrealistic standards. At its most destructive, objectification contributes to sexual assault.

In this piece, I portray a character caught in a situation and culture in which she is used and valued only for her body, which makes her feel that she has no value at all. I hope my performance will inspire consideration of how we as individuals and as a culture perceive and respond to female bodies and female sexuality.

When I was creating and tying together the concepts of this show - I realized it read more like a poem than a narrative. For example, dance 1 notes in journal read: forest floor mushrooms bursting into morning light flower girl prostitutes swaying out of puberty

These short lines then became motivations for movement. So, in many ways, Mother Nature is essentially an ecofeminist, postpastoral movement poem. Terry Gifford, in Pastoral (1999), describes the postpastoral mode of creative writing as possessing six interconnected characteristics, which Mother Naturepossesses:

1) A sense of awe with respect to nature that comes from repositioning a subjective perspective from the anthropomorphic to the ecocentric. In other words, taking the human out of the center of the world.

2) An ethos that is neither myopic nor overly selective in what aspects of nature it chooses to represent. In other words, the mushroom and the compost pile have equal worthiness of attention.

3) An understanding of the internal and external influence of nature. In other words, the environment affects our emotions, attitudes and sense of well-being.

4) Recognition that culture is not opposed to nature, but rather is nature, just as nature is culture. In other words, by viewing the body as wild, we remove the division between body and nature. We are essentially animals. By viewing culture as a mere organization of the wild, we remove division between culture and nature. It is a breakdown of the hierarchy of intellect over body, culture over nature.

5) Embraces the transition from consciousness to conscience. In other words, aware of the life that surrounds us and in response are growing more empathic towards that life and our role as caretaker.

6) The postpastoral mode is ecofeminist in that it recognizes the exploitation of nature resembles and partakes of the same mindset as the exploitation of women and minorities. In other words, we are addressing environmental and social exploitation at the same time.

Adrienne Rich writes in "What Kind of Times Are These" in Your Native Land, Your Life:﻿And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell youanything? Because you still listen, because in times like theseto have you listen at all, it's necessaryto talk about the trees.﻿

I agree with Rich. We can't listen to sexism without talking about the trees. - K

Whenever I am given a role to play­­ in dance or in theater­­ I spend some time meditating on it. I turn its concept over in my mind. I gather books and articles, or even snatches of words and phrases that I feel are related; I compile playlists of music to get into a suitable mood. I half­joke to my husband that this is a form of summoning magic. By surrounding myself with things I associate with a character, I begin to feel close enough to her to be able to communicate with her, to ask her: “Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?”

When I was assigned the role of Demon in Mother Nature, it was no different. As I type this, a copy of Paradise Lost and a Bible are at my elbow, along with a pile of Alan Moore comics and William Blake’s works. In another corner of the of the Internet, a Pinterest board of my own working teems with body horror specimens, vaginas dentatas, and gaping, howling maws.

Sometimes, even despite all this preparation, I’ll struggle to grasp a character, and Demon was one of those problem characters. I thought I knew her, but I had trouble putting her into the music I’d been assigned. However much I reached out to her, she did not reach back.

At least, not until my first choreographing session­­ when I stopped thinking about her and began to move her. In the early stages of building the choreography and fitting it to my body, Demon appeared, and very clearly told me who she was and what she wanted: I am the fury and helplessness of the Captured Queen. I am the alienation and desperation of the Workers. I am the aggression and paranoia of the Warriors. I am the pain and shame of the Sex Objects. As you have sown, so shall you reap. I am empty, I am hungry, I am devouring, and I am the end of your world.

So I have that to deal with. Yes, she’s loud.

For all her hatred of the body, the body was where Demon was residing, and that’s where I had to reach her.

But the more I dance her, the more it’s clear to me: of course that’s where I’ll find Demon. The story of Mother Nature is a story that brings the abuses of bodies­­ especially women’s bodies­­ into parallel with abuses of Nature and her resources. If the body is a gateway to the soul, it makes sense that the debasement of one would lead to the corruption of the other. And who is Demon but that corruption, in the flesh?

“But Parsons,” some might protest to me, “Why are you taking on this character, who is evil/Satanic/corrupt/unhealthy? Why are you talking to her, indulging her?” To that, I can only reply that every narrative needs an antagonist, and Mother Nature is no different. Demon appears in the show to pose the question, “Who is the protagonist­­ Nature, who has been corrupted, or humanity, who must confront the world that it has made?” I don’t think that’s a question Demon can answer­­ I don’t think she knows the answer. The character knows that she is an enemy, but she’s unclear on whose enemy. She is present in Mother Nature to tell us that as we have sown, so now we shall reap.

Or, perhaps, by looking on the face of evil, we may learn how to overcome it?

"Mother Nature" is divided into two sets - the first being an exploration of women's bodies as metaphors of the planet earth. The second being an exploration into the exploitive relationship humans have with both the planet and women's bodies. As the artistic director, I chose to incorporate the mythological and religious symbol of Eve into the first set.

In Judeo-Christian beliefs, Eve is a central figure in the creation story as told in the book of Genesis. Most interpretations portray her as the reason humanity "fell" from a place of innocence to that of sinly awareness. We all know how this version of the story goes: she was tempted by the serpent to partake in the fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge - and she fell for it. Then she tempted Adam and he quickly followed suit. They were both promptly punished and all of humanity was doomed to forever live in the lustful state of original sin.

In my feminist artistic interpretation of Eve, I imagine her as a curious, intelligent woman seeking greater understanding of her innate sexual powers. Rather than a tempestuous relationship with the serpent, the serpent represents the goddess, rebirth, fertility and knowledge. The apple represents her opportunity to awaken to power. In this dance, Eve intuitively begins to recognize that her body can become a means to experiencing sacred communion with the divine. The divine in this story is not an asexual male god, as described in the Old Testament, or a sexualized female goddess. The divine, or ultimate reality, is incomprehensible and far beyond human attributes of femininity or masculinity. But, we work with what we got, right? Eve had feminine energy.

Ancient religions acknowledged that women's power arises from an understanding of the interconnectedness of all people and life, of the cycles of nature and the cycles of our bodies. Divorcing ourselves from from the natural world as we are now doing in modern culture, brings disconnection and violence to the planet and, essentially, our bodies. The dance of Eve is about tempting ourselves back into this ancient wisdom and power.

MOON dance company is presenting "Mother Nature" October 3-4, 2015 at Talking Horse Theatre in Columbia, MO.Tickets go on sale online in August.

I’m from a generations-old farming family in central Missouri. Not exactly what you expect when you think of a belly dancer, right? Maybe... The upcoming Mother Nature show excites me on many levels. I was a painfully shy child, it was extremely difficult for me to speak to people, much less get on a stage and dance. That didn’t happen until just a couple of years ago with this group. Stepping onto a stage felt like stepping onto a foreign planet. It was a new world there for my exploration. I had an ideal early childhood with free run of hundreds of acres. Days were spent with little concept of time and surrounded by Everything Beautiful in nature: for me, communication with nature was easier than with people. Outside and alone was home. Missouri’s landscape and natural abundance is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Our little corner of the Earth is sometimes vastly underappreciated. It is fitting we do a tribute to Mother Nature here. My first taste of belly dance happened in India at 18 yrs old. I took a class and from then on dabbled in and out of it throughout the years. From that age on, I spent a lot of time in the Middle East and in the Middle Eastern culture; therefore, the essence of the dance feels natural to me. This is my third year with Moon Belly and it’s an honor to be amongst such beautiful and dedicated women. As I am learning, it’s one thing to train your body and showcase your physical movements. But this is not the end goal. The goal is to tell a story, expose the soul, and communicate beyond the realm of mind. On the stage, my body should be my words. The audience deserves a connection, not just a show.

Hi, I'm GG.I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but left when I was about five. I traveled all over the United States before settling in Jefferson City with my mom and siblings, where I lived up until last summer. Growing up I had no dance training or any kind of extra-curricular activities at all. My childhood and early adulthood was a whirlwind , moving around a lot and just trying to survive. There was no time or money. Unfortunately, that carried over into adulthood and life was stressful just trying to get through each day. I first saw belly dance in my early 20's at a Renaissance festival and it was the loveliest and most mysterious thing I had ever seen. I went to Renaissance Festivals JUST to see the belly dancing after that, but it never occurred to me that I could learn to do it. Because of many experiences I had growing up, the thought of improving myself or attempting to do something bigger, better, and more beautiful never once crossed my mind. I felt like my place in life was as a spectator, never a participant. I had my son at age 29, and that is when things changed for me. Finally I felt like I had a bigger reason for living. I was no longer just surviving day to day, but now I was really living. I was present in myself everyday and I loved being a mother. I started to give thought to my health. I became more aware of my body and what it could do. I became more active and started working out and actually started to like my body!One day when I was watching some YouTube videos about another type of dance, I stumbled across a new type of belly dance video. It wasn't like any belly dance I had ever seen. The movements were slow, sensual, and strong. The costume was dark and mysterious looking, not like the brightly colored, sparkly costumes that usually come to mind when I thought of belly dance. The feeling I had when I watched this dancer was impossible to put into words. I was spellbound! As I watched more and more dances, chills rippled over me. A thought occurred to me: I WANT TO DO THIS! I had never seen a woman that could be so many things at once-strong, beautiful, graceful, and in control of her own body. She had such power and could be the shining light of hope for a person who had spent a lifetime feeling hopeless.I found a class in my area and started going. My first class was magical, I was ecstatic and eager to learn. I filled my head with all things belly dance, and to be honest was obsessed! I scoured the internet for any and all articles related to belly dance. I borrowed books, movies, and music from the library. I was gladly taken by belly dance completely.After a couple of years I decided I needed more. The class I was in was fun and laid back. I enjoyed it and was grateful for its teachings, but I knew what I really needed was more discipline, and a more serious dance environment. I found one thirty minutes away in Columbia called Moon Belly Dance Studio. When I went to my first class and met Kandice, I knew that was where I needed to be. I felt things click in my mind when I was there. My body could not catch up with my mind, however. I felt slow and clunky, not graceful at all! I found the environment supportive even with my struggling, so I went to classes and watched several performances. When I watched them perform I was absolutely positive I was in the right place! These women were exactly what I wanted to see in myself. They were beautiful, strong, sensual, and self assured. They seemed in control of their bodies and reflected the women I had seen in the videos two years earlier when my love of belly dance had first bloomed.I have been coming to Moon Belly for about a year now and I have never been happier. I feel so lucky to have found them because they are the most fantastic group of women. The opportunity to dance with them and perform in “Mother Nature” has changed me in the best way possible I've found a place I belong, and people I belong with. Preparing for this show has been an emotional roller coaster. Sometimes I want to cry because my body doesn't do things quick enough, or I'm just struggling with things emotionally, that this process brings to the surface. Yet at other times I feel that I have resolved some issues through dance and feel such great relief to let those things go. I feel that this amazing dance is worth every step. Dance is therapy!!

Emma Brown is an aspiring aerial acrobat who fell in love with the performing art in 2012. She has been a lover of dance and movement for many years, and has found her artistic outlet in this unique performing art. Aerial dance allows her to combine her creativity, strength, and flexibility to formulate performance routines and lesson plans for beginning to intermediate students.Emma first studied aerial silks under the direction of Jenn Rauscher of JennuineFire. She continues to attend aerial workshops and classes whenever she can to advance herself as a performer and teacher. Emma is a personal trainer and has a BS in Nutrition and Fitness, both of which she utilizes to promote a healthy balance of training, recovery, and longevity for herself and her students.In July of 2014, Emma won the Intermediate Silks Division at the Aerial Expo Amateur Aerial Competition. She has performed at private parties for CARFAX and the True/False Film Festival. Emma has also performed with Quixotic Fusion, a Kansas City-based performing arts group.

In this lifetime we are given a few unique opportunities to discover who we are on a much deeper level. These opportunities tend to reveal to us our own capacities and inner resources in a way that nothing else can. For me, these moments have included watching death, giving birth, motherhood, attending births, and dancing. I had taken dancing lessons from a young age, and my intensity and stage presence was something that was remarked upon for as long as I can remember. The pinnacle in my young mind was to reach the age where I could move en pointe in my ballet class. The summer before that milestone, I sustained an injury. Such that I was a goner for ballet. My love of dance cooled as I moved into my teen years - my family was watching my Father suffer from a long illness that would take him from us at the age of 47. I became hard, reckless, and angry in the face of that suffering.

Motherhood found me, quite unexpectedly, at the age of 20. My daughter, like her sister 5 years later, brought a light and sweetness that I never knew I’d experience. I became soft again - I became open. Through an incredibly fortuitous set of connections and determination, I began attending births and ultimately supported hundreds of women through their journey. In these years dance came back to me. Kandice and I began our belly dance journey together with the most incredible group of ragtag teachers and friends. We cobbled together different dance styles from videos and workshops - and hand sewed our costumes from whatever bits we could find or scrape together change to buy. We danced because it felt good. We danced for one another. We danced when the babies kept coming. We danced as mamas moved far away and then back. When Kandice began Moon Belly in her home, I knew she was starting something special. Our bodies are older but better than ever. The technique has leveled up beyond what we imagined as young, unshaven, hippie mamas with babies strapped on our bodies. Dance, for me, is that core of softness, love, and appreciation for myself and my women friends - and Moon Belly is now the home for that.

My name is Brittney Banaei from Springfield,Missouri. I have been in love with dance my entire life. I love the way I feel when I'm dancing,I love the process involved in becoming a dancer, and I love the positive effect that dance has on people's lives. I began studying bellydance at age 14 with Troupe Sarab of Springfield, and continued my dance education with Arabesque Academy in Toronto, Suhaila Salimpour in Berkeley, and most recently Amy Sigil in Sacramento and Ruby Beh in Portland. This year I began the BFA Dance program at Missouri State University where my focus is on studying the transmutation of cultural dance in the age of internet, and how traditional art is merging with contemporary forms to tell new stories in an increasingly homogenized world. I direct the dance company 'the Phenomenon Ensemble' where I am developing a repertoire work that ranges from the classical/folkloric to the contemporary/experimental. I am also proud to be involved with the Springfield Dance Alliance, a growing not for profit organization focusing on creating a dynamic dance community. In addition to dance I am a Massage Therapist, have 4 cats and 1 dog, and love to bake and garden. Fun Fact: Kandi was the first person to ever host me for a dance workshop. I am so excited and honored to be a part of this production!

Dancing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mom had my sisters and me in dance by the age of 3 and we were in classes most of my childhood. My mother is a dancer and has instructed off and on my whole life, so I was either taking from her or at some other dance school and I loved it! I learned how to express myself through dance and it just became my identity; I was a dancer.

Things changed pretty abruptly when my parents divorced when I was 12. We moved to another state and began going to a public school for the first time. Up to this point, we were either homeschooled or in a private school and were pretty sheltered from the world around us. To say the least, we were quite culture shocked and I had a hard time navigating through all the changes going on around me. My mom started teaching ballroom dance and for whatever reason, we did not return to dance classes. We danced with my mom as she practiced her new style of dance and we learned a lot from her in our home and I used to dream of competing and dancing professionally in the Ballroom dance world.

Somewhere along the way, I began to get very lost. I never felt that I fit in at any school I went to, and we moved around… a lot. I always felt like as soon as I began to get comfortable somewhere, we’d pick up and move again or we would flip flop back and forth between my mom and dad. My dad had moved to be closer to us after deciding living states away was much too difficult. Thankfully I always had my twin sister alongside me during the many changes in schools, but we eventually began to grow apart in our efforts to find our own identities. I began seeking out other “outsiders” and started using drugs and alcohol at a very young age. I thought I had found a solution to my feelings of being “different” and that I finally fit in somewhere. More time passed between me and dancing. My longing to dance again began to fade away and although I still described myself as a “dancer”, I had no credentials to speak of anymore ,and it was just some distant dream.

My journey to where I am at today was long and painful. I struggled to find myself again but I was looking in all the wrong places. My spirit was dying and I did not know how to breathe life back into it. Eventually, through some power not my own, I became ready and willing to do something different. Once I made that decision there was no turning back. As I began to find myself again, I had this knowing that one day, I didn’t know how, where, or when, I would dance again. About a year ago a dear friend called me and asked if I wanted to go to a belly dance class with her. Just the thought of going to a dance class, any kind of dance class, was so exciting and I was all in! I went to my first Moon Belly class and to a performance at the Bridge that weekend, and was hooked immediately. I was mesmerized by the dancers and I thought that could be me someday! Finding myself on a dance floor again has revived my spirit in so many ways. I have come to love Moon Belly and what it represents to me: That embracing and loving yourself as you are, your perfect imperfections and all, is what being a woman is about. Dancing at Moon Belly with these amazing women, I have found someone who is strong, confident, and beautiful and that someone is me!

When I came to belly dance, it had been years—as in, my age was in the single digits—since I’d set foot inside a dance studio. I was a chain-smoking night owl who hadn’t bought a pair of sneakers in years and who had most recently used an exercise DVD as a temporary bookmark. But my friend knew a place where we could take belly dance lessons. I’d seen belly dancers in my hometown of St. Louis before, and I was intrigued by them. The dance they did looked feminine and graceful, but they were strong, terrifically strong. I still wasn’t prepared for my first class, though. The warm-up alone was grueling, drawing on muscles I’d never used. Before drills even started, my endurance reserves were tapped. The music was unlike anything I’d ever heard before and my first ever lesson was on three-quarters on the down, which even experienced belly dancers will tell you can be tough. (I still struggle with it today.) My face was crimson. I was sweating buckets. I loved it.

I’ve been belly dancing for ten years, and in those ten years I have seen dance effect a profound change on my life. I’ve done things that I didn’t think it was possible for me to do. I’ve pushed my body to—and past—limits that I thought would always hem me in. I can move in the beautiful, passionate way in which I’d always dreamed—and when I can’t, I’m only inspired to do better, knowing that I have it in me to be the dancer I want to be. Dance has brought me freedom and joy in a way I didn’t anticipate—and even better, it’s brought me to a community where I can share those feelings. I’m so grateful for how dance, and how Moon Belly, has helped me build the life I want. Sometimes, I look back at the person I was, and I’m astounded by how far I’ve come, and how much I look forward to what the future holds.

I grew up dancing. My mother enrolled me on the advice of my pediatrician for the strengthening of my flat feet, and could never have known what a gift it would be to an otherwise shy girl like me. Dancing quickly became, from ballet at the tender age of four, through my ever-broadening exploration, my method of release, expression, and perfect freedom to become whatever and whomever my imagination wanted or my psyche needed. I danced all the way through college, teaching to pay for my school, and drinking in all the different styles I could access from my Nebraska home town. Over the years, I traveled to find teachers of Latin dance, ballroom and swing, stylized workshops from students of teachers like Bob Fosse and Alvin Ailey and, coming to Columbia in 2001, found a home at Dancearts, where I have taught Musical Theater, ballet technique, tap and yoga, and continue to study Modern Ballet with Maggie Dethrow, in a class of women in our 30s and 40s who continue to dance because there is just nothing that can ever replace it.

I was introduced to the idea of belly dance when Kandice Grossman and then-Dragonfly Christi Kelly took my adult ballet class at Dancearts and, while I was instantly intrigued, didn't start studying belly dance technique until 2 years later when, inspired by the diversity and familial nature of the belly dance community, and my friendship with Kandi, I let my fascination draw me in. I believe our learning should never end. I do not believe decline is an inevitable part of growing older. So, to find a thriving community of adult dancers still forging ahead into new creative endeavors, I couldn't resist, and continue to be fascinated, not only by the task of learning and training for a completely new expression of dance, but also by the task of telling such a powerful and necessary story as the one this show endeavors to tell.

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This blog is designed to provide information about Moon Belly and MOON dance company happenings. At times, it becomes an open journal of our various theatrical explorations. At other times, it serves as a source of education on belly dance culture and history.